The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of April 18, 2024

Portrait of Catherine Clemens and Her Son, John Marcus Clemens

Portrait of Catherine Clemens and Her Son, John Marcus Clemens

c. 1800
(British, 1742–1821)
England, 19th century
watercolor on ivory in a gold and split pearl frame
Framed: 9 x 7.3 cm (3 9/16 x 2 7/8 in.); Sight: 8 x 6.1 cm (3 1/8 x 2 3/8 in.)
The Edward B. Greene Collection 1941.552
Location: not on view

Did You Know?

Portraits of mothers with their children were much more common in the 1700s and 1800s in Britain than were portraits of fathers with their children.

Description

This sensitive portrait of Catherine Clemens and her son, John Marcus, was painted around 1800 and exemplifies the prettiness for which Cosway was so well known. The artist’s trademark turquoise blue sky is reflected in the boy’s brilliant blue eyes and the bow on the frock that slips informally off his shoulder. This miniature also showcases Cosway’s mature technique of delicate stipplework throughout the faces, contrasted with looser brushstrokes for the hair and garments. Both John Marcus and his mother are swathed in white ruffled fabric, against which the paleness of their skin seems even more pronounced. Like his contemporaries, Cosway used the bare ivory ground to enhance the creaminess of flesh tones. John Marcus wears a coral necklace, frequently given to children during this period as a talisman believed to ward off illness. His innocent, childish gesture of reaching down his mother’s dress for her breast is awkward considering his disproportionately large size. The fact that he is still young enough to wear a gown rather than breeches suggests that he is under four years of age, and yet his head and lips are larger than his mother’s. During the final decades of the eighteenth century, aristocratic women as prominent as the Duchess of Devonshire were electing to breastfeed their children rather than send them to wet nurses, and this may be a delicate reference to Catherine Clemens’s philosophy of “natural” parenting.
  • Before 1930-1930
    Leo Schidlof (1886-1966), Paris, France, sold to Edward B. Greene
    1930-1941
    Edward B. Greene (1878-1957), Cleveland, OH, gifted to the Cleveland Museum of Art
    1941-
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • Think (International Business Machines Corp.) (March 1950). 16 (repr.)
    Cleveland Museum of Art. Portrait Miniatures; The Edward B. Greene Collection. Cleveland: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1951. Mentioned: p. 26, no. 8; reproduced: pl. VI, no. 8, cover archive.org
    Comstack, Helen. "The Edward B. Greene Collection of Miniatures." The Connoisseur 128, no. 532 (October 1951): 137-144. Mentioned and reproduced: p. 138
    Lister, Raymond. “Edward B. Greene Collection of Portrait Miniatures.” Apollo: The International Magazine for Collectors 55 (January 1952): 20. Mentioned: p. 20; reproduced: cover
    Geneva (Switzerland). Chefs-d'oeuvre de la miniature et de la gouache. Genèva: Le Musée, 1956. Mentioned and Reproduced: cat. no. 99
    "Masterpieces of Miniatures and Gouache." The Connoisseur 138 (October 1956): 82-83. Mentioned and reproduced: p. 82-83
    Cleveland Museum of Art, and Alan Chong. European & American Painting in the Cleveland Museum of Art: A Summary Catalogue. Cleveland, Ohio: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1993. p. 282
    Korkow, Cory, and Dario Robleto. Disembodied: Portrait Miniatures and Their Contemporary Relatives. 2013. Mentioned and Reproduced: p.35, 86, 69
    Korkow, Cory, and Jon L. Seydl. British Portrait Miniatures: The Cleveland Museum of Art. 2013. Cat. no. 67, pp. 255-257
    Cleveland Museum of Art. The CMA Companion: A Guide to the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2014. Mentioned and reproduced: P. 197
  • Disembodied: Portrait Minatures and their Contemporary Relatives. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 10, 2013-February 16, 2014).
    Main European Rotation, Gallery 202, The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (January 30, 2012 - July 23, 2012).
    Main Gallery Rotation, Gallery 202, The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (January 5, 2009 - April 6, 2009).
    Intimate Images: Portrait Miniatures from Europe and America. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (March 26-October 17, 1993).
    Object Lessons: Cleveland Creates an Art Museum. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 7-September 8, 1991).
    Chefs d’Oeuvre de la Miniature et de la Gouache. Musée d'art et d'histoire, Geneva, Switzerland (organizer) (June 15-August 15, 1956).
    Four Centuries of Miniature Painting. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY (organizer) (January 18-March 19, 1950).
  • {{cite web|title=Portrait of Catherine Clemens and Her Son, John Marcus Clemens|url=false|author=Richard Cosway|year=c. 1800|access-date=18 April 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1941.552